Secondly, lifting weights saved me from a manual labour Darwinism that chewed up over 90% of my peers. It helped me survive my high school job – grueling factory work carrying 140-lb flour bags 8 hours a day, a merciless Darwinian process that cut 9 out of 10 student workers.

Third, lifting weights saved me from my grade 9 nightmare – not cutting it in high school football. Lifting weights developed from a lost-cause laughing-stock little league football player into a high school 60-minute varsity first-stringer right from the beginning of grade 9, where I started on both the junior varsity and varsity teams.

Fourth, lifting weight saved me my professional career goal. It helped me get hired a police officer at the age of 18 on my first shot at applying and helped me survive 15 years in front-line policing.

Fifth, lifting weight save my football coaching career. After my rookie head coaching debacle of a 1-7 season, lifting weights turned my losing team into undefeated 10-0 champions in just one year. And it has been the primary factor in all our championship since then and the next-level recruitment of over 200 players.

Sixth, lifting weights saved me from workplace hell and the prospect of retirement hell by letting me become a full-time business owner. In 2001, I opened my lifting business – X Fitness Inc., a 24-hour gym in Welland, Ontario. Best professional decision I ever made.

Seventh, lifting weight has saved me from aging. I’m 54 and have never been out-worked during a work-out. And never will. I’m in better shape at 54 than I was at 24. Lift weights is an anti-aging miracle.

Eighth, lifting weights has let me be an athlete for life. Lifting weights is a sport. And I don’t have to retire from it. Retired is for the tired. Tired leads to retired – retired leads to tired.

These life-savers set my future goals:

To never retire

Never get tired

Never get out-worked during a work-out.

Lifting weights has transformed the lives of thousands of student-athletes I’ve coached and college law enforcement students I’ve taught. I have personally witness miraculous turnarounds. Those who have stuck it out in the gym have never failed to change their lives for the better.

Start lifting, Keep lifting. It can save your life. – continued

Gino Arcaro is a bestselling author who has transitioned from academic law enforcement textbooks to non-fiction motivational book.

The book is a true story about how lifting is life-saving. Lifting lost souls is a two-way life-saver. So is lifting weights. Soul of a Lifteris about connections between lost souls who become souls of lifters. We all have the capacity to be a soul of a lifter, if we’re willing to lift others.